About

Eva C Bertram is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics within the Social Sciences Division at UCSC. Her research focuses on American political development and public policy, with particular emphasis on social policy and the welfare state, as well as the changing character of work and labor markets in the United States. Bertram's most recent book, 'The Workfare State: Public Assistance Politics from the New Deal to the New Democrats,' examines the political and institutional sources of the transformation in public assistance policy, highlighting the shift from an entitlement-based system to a work-conditioned safety net. This work traces the internal struggles within the Democratic Party over the means and ends of federal income assistance and considers the impact of the rise of work-based social policies in an economy with diminishing job security and stability. Her research also explores the politics of unemployment and underemployment in the United States, focusing on the segment of involuntary part-time and marginally-attached workers, and the political debates surrounding responsibility for these issues. Additionally, Bertram's earlier work includes an examination of the interaction between policy, politics, and markets in the development of U.S. drug control policy, notably in her coauthored book 'Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial,' which addresses the persistence and escalation of U.S. drug control policies driven by public ideas, institutional interests, and political conflict. She serves as Associate Director of the UCSC Blum Center and is actively engaged in the academic community, contributing to research and teaching in her areas of expertise.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Social Science
• Public administration
• Sociology
• Engineering
• Law
• Public relations
• History
• Geography

Selected publications

• Whose Work Counts? Congressional Republicans and the Battle over Employment Status, 1947–48

  Studies in American Political Development · 2023 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Law

  Abstract Conflicts over the employment status of Uber, Lyft, and other gig workers have made headlines in recent years. I argue that the conditions facing these workers and other independent contractors today are in many respects the result of policy decisions made seventy-five years ago, in hard-fought battles over which workers would—and which would not—be protected by New Deal social programs and labor laws for employees. In 1947–48, New Deal Democrats were poised to establish a more expansive definition of “employee,” extending eligibility to a range of workers excluded by more restrictive common law standards. The Republican-led 80th Congress thwarted the attempt to expand coverage, however, by blocking administrative initiatives, reversing court rulings, and redefining employment-based eligibility for federal labor and social protections. Their actions redirected policy on employment relations, restricting the reach of New Deal protections in the post–WWII economy and shaping the terms of subsequent conflicts over employment status in ways that have left broad power and discretion in the hands of employers.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Community-Engaged Research for Economic Justice: Reflections on Concepts and Practices

  Social Sciences · 2023 · 3 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Public relations

  The growing practice of community-engaged research (CER) creates new opportunities for practitioners, both to affirm the importance of critical approaches to CER and to strengthen our work by reflecting on the concepts and practices of our research. We offer reflections on the meanings of “community,” “engagement,” and “research” in the context of on-the-ground community–university collaborations conducted by the Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise, and Participatory Governance, a campus-based research center at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This account is provided in the spirit of sharing observations, insights, and lessons learned about CER, generated through its practice in a range of community-based research projects.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reinventing Governments: The Promise and Perils of United Nations Peace Building

  Routledge eBooks · 2020 · 14 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Public administration
  PublisherDOI

• Response to Rebecca Thorpe’s review of <i>The Workfare State: Public Assistance Politics from the New Deal to the New Democrats</i>

  Perspectives on Politics · 2018-02-07 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

• The American Warfare State: The Domestic Politics of Military Spending. By Rebecca U. Thorpe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. 248p. $81.00 cloth, $29.00 paper.

  Perspectives on Politics · 2018-02-07

  article1st authorCorresponding

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

• A Discussion of Sanford Schram’s <i>The Return of Ordinary Capitalism: Neoliberalism, Precarity, Occupy</i>

  Perspectives on Politics · 2016-06-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Sanford Schram’s The Return of Ordinary Capitalism: Neoliberalism, Precarity, Occupy (Oxford University Press, 2015) is an ambitious effort to link together three important political realities of our time: the rise of new forms of neoliberal governance, the associated rise of new forms of social and economic insecurity, and the recent development of organized forms of political resistance symbolized by the figure of “Occupy.” The argument is relevant to all subfields of political science. And so we have invited a range of experts across the discipline to comment on the book and on the broader question the book poses: Are we confronting a new form of capitalism that engenders new forms of politics, and if so, what does this mean for political science?

  PublisherDOI

• The Political Development of Contingent Work in the United States: Independent Contractors from the Coal Mines to the Gig Economy

  E-Journal of international and comparative labour studies · 2016-10-24 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The meaning and salience of employee status in the United States and the “regulatory void” that defines the independent contractor designation, reflect decisions made by state and federal legislatures, courts, and bureaucratic agencies. Their decisions, over time, have allowed and sometimes facilitated the growth of nonstandard work and the expansion of an unregulated zone of contingency. The issues raised in current legal and political struggles over the role of independent contractors in the “gig economy” are therefore more old than new; they are the latest iteration of a century-long conflict over the boundaries of the U.S. employment relationship.

  Publisher

• Work and the Welfare State: Street-Level Organizations and Workfare Politics. By Evelyn Z. Brodkin and Gregory Marston, Eds. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013. 336p. $36.95.

  Perspectives on Politics · 2016-08-31

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Work and the Welfare State: Street-Level Organizations and Workfare Politics. By Evelyn Z. Brodkin and Gregory Marston, Eds. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013. 336p. $36.95. - Volume 14 Issue 3

  PublisherDOI

• [Patients' rights--doctors' duties].

  PubMed · 2015-06-01 · 3 citations

  article

  On 26 February 2013 the new "Law on Patients' Rights" (hereinafter also the "Law") became effective. This Law strengthens patients' rights vis-à-vis the insurdnce company and also regulates patients' rights regarding their relation to the doctor. This has consequences for the laws on medical liability all doctors must consider. The doctor's performance is and remains a service and such service does not hold any guarantee of success. Nevertheless, this Law primarily reads as a "law on the duties of physicians". To duly take into account these duties and to avoid mistakes and misinterpretation of the Law, the Ethics Committee of the Consortium of Osteosynthesis Trauma Germany (AOTRAUMA-D) has drafted comments on the Law. Brief summaries of its effects are to be found at the end of the respective comment under the heading "Consequences for Practice". The text of the law was influenced particularly by case law, as continuously developed by the German Federal Court of Justice ("BGH"). The implementation of the Law on Patients' Rights was effected by the newly inserted sections 630a to 630h of the German Civil Code (the "BGB"), which are analysed below. The following comments are addressed to physicians only and do not deal with the specific requirements and particularities of the other medical professions such as physiotherapy, midwifery and others so on. Special attention should be paid to the comments on the newly inserted Duty to inform, which has to be fullfilled prior to any diagnostic or therapeutic procedure (sec. 630c para 2 sentence 1 BGB). Under certain conditions the doctor also has to inform the patient about the circumstances that lead to the presumed occurance of a therapeutic or diagnostic malpractice (sec. 630c para. 2 sentence 2 BGB), based on the manifestation of an undesired event or an undesired outcome. As before, the patient's valid consent to any procedure (sec. 630d BGB) is directly linked to the comprehensive and timely provision of information (sec. 630e BGB). Comprehensive documentation obligations regarding all procedures are stipulated in sec. 630f BGB. As before, the burden of proof still rests with the patient, unless a severe malpractice has been established (sec. 630h BGB). The definition of "severe malpractice" remains unchanged and is based on the case law of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). The patient's obligations to preserve his or her health and to actively support the process of recovery and securing a positive outcome of the treatment are not explicitly mentioned in the Law. Nevertheless, the patient and the physician need to work closely together to achieve a successful result of the treatment. In case the patient does not give his or her cooperation, the physician should consider terminating the treatment relationship.

  Publisher

• The Workfare State

  University of Pennsylvania Press eBooks · 2015-06-11 · 22 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  The Workfare State recounts the history of the evolving social contract for poor families from the New Deal to the present. Challenging conventional accounts, Eva Bertram argues that conservative Southern Democrats in the 1960s and 1970s led the way in developing the modern workfare state, well before Republican campaigns in the 1980s.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Kenneth Evan Sharpe

  Swarthmore College

  5 shared

• Peter Andreas

  3 shared

• T Mischkowsky

  2 shared

• Lorenz Cardinal Jaeger

  2 shared

• Diane Paul

  2 shared

• Morris J. Blachman

  2 shared

• J Probst

  University of Minnesota

  2 shared

• Wöllenweber Hd

  1 shared